Intro

SatNOGS Client Ansible is the suggested method to install SatNOGS Client (and friends) to a system. It currently supports Raspbian and Debian (stretch and buster).

Raspbian

For Raspberry Pi, which is the reference platform for SatNOGS, a Raspbian image with SatNOGS Client Ansible pre-installed is available.

Debian

Skip this section if you are using SatNOGS Raspbian image and SatNOGS Client Setup. Follow these instructions if you are provisioning SatNOGS to Debian from another host or are installing on the same host.

These sections contain generic instructions for installing SatNOGS Client on a Debian system.

Prerequisites

A target Debian system. To install Debian please follow the Debian Installation Guide and chose the net installer if you want to run a headless server. The target system can be the host itself.

An SSH server running on the target system.

A host system with Git and latest version of Ansible installed. To install Ansible on Debian, follow the Ansible Installation Guide.

SatNOGS Client Setup

satnogs-setup is a script for configuring a system installed with SatNOGS Client Ansible.

Initial Setup

Right after the first boot of the system, packages and the configuration tool itself must be updated. Follow the Updating instruction found below.

To configure a SatNOGS Client Ansible system:

SSH into the system and run sudo satnogs-setup; this will bring up the configuration menu

Set Basic Configuration (see below)

Select Apply and the Raspberry Pi will configure itself; this may take some time

Select Back to exit

You can always reconfigure the software by running sudo satnogs-setup again.

Basic Configuration

Setting

Description

SATNOGS_API_TOKEN

The API token assigned to your ground station on the SatNOGS Network website, please don’t share your api key as this can give access to anyone to upload and change things in network related to your station and its observations.

SATNOGS_RX_DEVICE

If you are using an RTL-SDR, this is rtlsdr. Other devices supported by gr-satnogs include usrpb200, usrp2, airspy or hackrf; a complete list can be found here.

SATNOGS_STATION_ELEV

The height of your ground station above sea level in metres.

SATNOGS_STATION_ID

The numeric ID assigned to your station in the SatNOGS Network site when the groundstation was created.

SATNOGS_STATION_LAT

The latitude of your station. North is positive, south is negative.

SATNOGS_STATION_LON

The longitude of your station. East is positive, west is negative.

HAMLIB_UTILS_ROT_ENABLED

Whether or not to enable the Hamlibs rotator daemon. Rotctld is a software daemon that provides a network server to control a rotator on a serial port. If you don't have a rotator (like the No rotator setup), enter NO.